Mermaids

We recently re-joined the YMCA.  There are several reasons, three of which happen to be girls who are dying, "literally dying to get to the YMCA to swim!"  Apparently when you have a teenager and two, dramatic girls as daughters, things become life or death.  I think they actually plot when they're together about how to get N and I to acquiesce to their demands.  It also doesn't help that we pass by the YMCA almost every day.

The girls had some money left over from Christmas, so we took them swimsuit shopping.  The thought of swimsuit shopping for me personally brings on a very large, very paralyzing panic attack.  For our girls, they each found about 62 swimsuits apiece that they thought were adorable.  We spent a good hour in a dressing room while they tried to find thee perfect suit for the YMCA.  Which I'm positive, all this was part of their plotting.  YMCA, new swimsuit and new goggles.

All our girls are fish.  They love to jump in, dive, do laps and be in the water for as long as possible.  Because of all the chlorine and the fact that they live under the water, they needed new goggles.  Ones that don't fog up because that's just annoying. 

On the way from the store to the YMCA, Zoe was admiring her pink, anti-fog goggles.  I'm positive this girl would wear them 24/7.  She told me I should try them for driving because they are AWESOME!

When she got out of the car at the YMCA, this was her look:

She put them on in the car and was ready to go. 

She will routinely get them out of the YMCA bag and wear them around the house.  Just yesterday I saw them on her table and I asked if she went swimming.  She laughed and said, "no mom (in a teenager tone), I was watching TV!"  You have to imagine that with an expression that informs me I'm the dumbest person in the world for not knowing they are great for TV watching. 

I have a feeling this will be the look of summer at our house...swimsuit and anti-fog goggles. 

The Final Patch

We are involved in AWANA at our church.  It's something both N and I did as kids.  I actually attended the same church we do now.  I heard the story of Jesus dying and raising again in the very room I teach kids the same story.  If it wasn't for AWANA, I wouldn't have made the decision to accept Christ as my Savior at the age of 8.  It holds a very dear place in my heart.

You can imagine how excited I was when Zoe became AWANA age.  She's in the Cubbies group of 3-4 year olds.  She passed her book last year and has been working on memorizing verses in her second book this year.  Once she hits kindergarten she moves from Cubbies to Sparks, which is where I am.  Since January she's been counting down the patches until she's a Sparkie.  It started with 5 and we were finally down to 1 patch left.

Someone got that patch last night.

She is beyond thrilled.  Next week is move up night, so she'll get to play games with us.  The whole way home she was planning what games we are going to play.

I think she may have a future as a Sparkies Director too!

It was a Ball to Remember

N is a man who is laid-back.  His personality just goes with the flow of my Type-A personality.  He used to not be social or really like to leave the house.  Then I started planning all these things for us to do and now he enjoys the busy. 

A few weeks ago we got a newsletter in the mail from Zoe's school.  In it was an invitation for all dads and daughters to a social on Friday the 13th.  It was a princess themed party, so you could dress up as your favorite princess. 

Because we are crafty people, my mom decided to make Zoe a princess dress.  Zoe had her heart set on being Cinderella.  Fortunately it's prom season, so all special fabric was 50% off.  We worked on making a dress that matched Cinderella.  By we, I mean my mom, I just cut out a couple pieces of the pattern.

Zoe was beside herself counting down the days to the ball.  What's even more awesome, so was N.  He asked Zoe what he should wear if he was to be her prince.  She said, "your Easter shirt with all the designs, jeans, boots and a hat."  Basically her prince is daddy and she'll take him just as he is.  Those two melt my heart.

On the night of the big dance, Zoe got into her dress and daddy got into his princely attire and we headed outside for pictures.

To make the night more special, N gave Zoe a necklace.  It was Cinderella's carriage with a blue sea stone inside to match her dress.  The look on her face when daddy gave her the finishing touch to her outfit brought a tear to my eye.  She couldn't stop hugging him and saying thank you.  In that moment, Zoe transformed into a princess.

She was truly the belle of the ball that night.  She made a crown, got her face painted and learned to waltz with daddy.  They spent the entire evening dancing.

It's such a blessing to have the daddy that makes our girls feel like the princesses they are.  He truly is our prince.

Easter

I'm finally getting around to post some Easter pictures. 

At the after-Christmas sales, I found a playhouse.  It's big enough to fit someone of Zoe's size and yet small enough to fit into our limited space.  Plus it was Lalaloopsy, which is a kid's toy collection that is all about sewing and crafting.  It's like they made it for our family.  The dolls have fun names like Spot Splatter Splash and Jewel Sparkles.  We can't ever remember those names so they turn into Orangy Orange and Princess Sparkles, respectively.

N and Zoe put it together on Saturday night.  Zoe is actually still in the playhouse, almost two weeks later.  It's safe to say that Spot Splatter Splash and her magical playhouse were a HUGE hit.

On Easter it's always a bit of a challenge because N plays on the worship team, has to be at church at, well early, and we don't really have family time until after church.  This year was a little different because Zoe and I had a baby sitting job.  We got to love on our new nephew/cousin, Austin, while N and his sister Bev did worship team. 

You have never seen a more attentive babysitter in all your life.  Zoe sang him songs, showed him how to dance, then how to freeze dance and then how to hold hands.  She's been asking every day since when our next "babysitting gig" is. 

When we got home from church and our babysitting gig, the Easter bunny had come to our house.  There were at least 3 dozen eggs for her to find and a new kite.  Hello awesome!

What Easter wouldn't be complete without a new dress.  It's fun to see all the sides of Zoe come out and she's a Grandma Kathy girl too.  They share a deep love of all things Wizard of Oz.  I found a light blue and white gingham dress that we call her Dorothy dress.  She paired it with her sparkly pink shoes for the whole effect.

The sassy pose is all Zoe and not so much Dorothy.

After the 1 minute it took for Zoe to find all 36 eggs, examine her kite and get into comfy clothes, we had some breakfast.  My mom's new thing is hashbrowns from scratch.  We all left the table counting down the days until the next Easter.

Who knows, maybe we'll have to find a Spot Splatter Splash (aka Orangy Orange) type dress.

March, March Glide

I'm a bit behind in updating and there has been much going on.  I'm going to do my best to get caught up on all the happenings. 

My nephews are hockey players.  Since my oldest nephew, MJ, was 2, we've been at the ice rink for either skating lessons, hockey lessons or hockey games.  My oldest nephews now play out of town more than in town, so we don't get to watch as much as we used to.  That didn't diminish Zoe's desire to ice skate.  She saw her cousin T-Dog do a couples figure skating program a year ago and it's been in her head ever since to get on the ice and skate like he did.

We are fortunate that our main ice rink has a preschool skate lesson 4 days a week.  The kids can skate with a bar to get a feel for the ice.  They also teach them how to skate, how to fall down, how to get up and basically just get comfortable on the ice.

Zoe, like her cousins, took to the ice.  She LOVES it.  We count the sleeps between skating classes and Grandma even bought her pink and white skates for Easter.  She's totally Pinkalicious now!

Here she is practicing the move - march, march...glide.

She is not fearful of the ice or skating and frequently ditches her bar to skate "all by herself."  We are so proud of how well she's doing and how she doesn't let fear rule! 

Looks like I'm going to have to dust off the hockey skates and get to practicing!  N is already trying to get some used skates.  Looks like we'll be spending more time on the ice.

Almost Wordless Wednesday: A Girl and Her Dog

They are the unstoppable crime fighting duo on every walk we take. 

The Vocabulary of an Adult

Zoe has a large vocabulary.  Something doesn't taste good, it's delicious.  Something isn't pretty, it's glamorous.  She talks as though she's an adult with a flair for description. 

She and N have been invited to a Daddy Daughter Social this month.  It isn't just any social, it's a princess social.  That means she can dress up as a princess.  Because she's also a director, she's planning on N dressing up as a prince.  He's being quite a good sport about it.  I think he's planning on wearing his suit and Fedora.  Zoe's planning he look exactly like Prince Charming from Cinderella. 

Nonetheless, they are STOKED!

My mom and I have a plan to make Zoe a Cinderella dress rather than just have her wear her store-bought one.  Not that there is anything wrong with it, but a homemade one will give her that extra bit of glamor that she's looking for.  Plus, there's a costume contest and how awesome would it be that she would win.

Since it's getting to be prom season, there was a huge sale on special occasion fabric.  Zoe and I went to the store last night.  I found some light blue satin fabric and a matching shimmer overlay.  It will make it look like the dress is sparkling.  I was excited!

Zoe was about 3/4 of the row in front of me, found some light blue fabric with jewels sewn on it, and yelled, "mom, this fabric is so much more me, don't ya think?" She held it up to her cheek and batted her eyes. 

Sometimes I cannot keep a straight face with this one.